Her parents, David and Wendy Mills, started the Kailee Mills Foundation to raise awareness of how seat belts can save lives.

In October 2017, a 16-year-old named Kailee Mills unbuckled her seat belt to take a selfie with a friend before she was killed in a car accident, according KBTX-TV. Now, her parents, David and Wendy Mills, are working to make sure this doesn’t happen to another family.

Kailee was just 400 yards from her home in Spring, Texas, when the accident occurred last October, according to FOX26. The teenager was seated in the back seat, headed to a Halloween party with friends, when her parents believe she removed her seat belt to get a better angle for a selfie. ABC13 reports Harris County Sheriff’s deputies believe the driver was speeding and lost control of the vehicle when the car flipped, causing Kailee to be ejected. The other three passengers in the car survived. They were wearing their seat belts.

David and Wendy used the Life360 app to locate their daughter after receiving a call about the accident. "We pulled it up and it showed us that she was just right down the road, so we had our friends take us to the scene and right when we got there, there were tons of police vehicles, so we knew it was serious,” Kailee’s father told KBTX-TV. About 10 minutes after the Mills arrived, a friend who was working the scene informed them of their daughter’s death.

In the weeks following Kailee’s death, her parents launched the Kailee Mills Foundation. The nonprofit organization offers car decals reminding people to buckle up. According to FOX26, the Mills recently partnered with the Texas Department of Transportation for a “Click It or Ticket” campaign that features a variety of shoes that represents nearly 1,000 people who died in car accidents in Texas last year. The Mills family placed a pair of pink shoes in the campaign to represent Kailee.

The couple also timed how long it takes to buckle a seat belt, according to the Houston Chronicle. "It just takes three seconds, that's all," David told KBTX-TV.

Wendy Mills described Kailee as a “ray of sunshine” to the local Fox affiliate. “She had this laugh that was very unique,” she said. “Her laugh alone made you smile and she loved to make people smile.”
The nonprofit organization uses the hashtags #3seconds2click and #beselfishaboutyoursafety to help spread its message.

"We timed how long it takes to buckle your seat belt to reach over and get it clicked and it's on average three seconds," David told the Houston Chronicle. "When it comes to wearing your seat belt, that's something to be selfish about.”

Additionally, the Mills family has enlisted friends and local athletes in Spring to help promote the foundation. Football players at Klein Collins High School, where Kailee was a junior, wear the foundation’s symbol on their helmets.

The CDC reports that nine people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured every day as a result of distracted driving. Data collected by Priceonomics indicates that car crashes are not a leading cause of selfie deaths, but do contribute.